In October 2016 John Sawers, a former MI6 chief, told BBC that the world was entering an era possibly “more dangerous” than the Cold War, as “we do not have that focus on a strategic relationship between Moscow and Washington”.

Lt. Gen. Eugeny Buzhinsky, head of PIR Centre, a Moscow Think Tank, did maintain: “If we talk about the last Cold War, we are currently somewhere between the erection of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis but without the mechanisms to manage the confrontation”.

Following the defeat in Falluja and the loss of more than 40% of its territory (chipped away by Kurdish groups, Shia militias, the Iraqi army, and US-led airstrikes in Iraq; by Russian and Assad troops in Syria), ISIS is shifting emphasis to terror attacks, the new way to capture global headlines and attention.

Unlike al-Qaeda, which chose difficult and strategic targets such as embassies or the Pentagon, ISIS chose the most vulnerable ones, because this would sow the most terror and do the most human damage.